


That is where the evening splits in half

by Glaciere



Category: Incredible Hulk (2008), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Gen, Genderswap, girl!Bruce
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-20
Updated: 2012-05-20
Packaged: 2017-11-05 16:56:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,425
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/408787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Glaciere/pseuds/Glaciere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's hard, in Kolkata.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That is where the evening splits in half

**Author's Note:**

> written for avengerkink@lj. Prompt: always-a-girl!Bruce.

It's hard, in Kolkata. Bryce tries to find work at a factory at first, something familiar in an unfamiliar environment, but the conditions are worse than in Rio. It's either leave or Change in the middle of the day, in front of the ugly, smug faces of her co-workers, who deserve nothing but a kick in the balls.

She turns out to be angrier than she thought.

"You flashed factory workers?" Betty giggles over the phone, a week later. Their phone calls are rare and and not at all safe, but it's the one thing that keeps Bryce grounded, so she's willing to put up with a little stress.

Bryce shrugs, uncomfortable in her too-small armchair. 

"Got what they wanted, even if in the wrong color," Bryce says. She'd left her torn bra and shirt at the factory. At least, she thinks so. The details of the times she's - Changed, are still hazy, so much of her is consumed with rage it's hard to remember anything other than screams. Being scared, that's easy to recall too, terrified and furious.

Bryce stays at home for a long time after that. She kind of expects TV-crews, reporters, deranged military officers, but it's as if the commotion at the factory had never happened. Getting restless, Bryce tries to find a hobby; Changes three times trying to learn knitting and gives up. Maybe she ought to take up bird-watching. Then again, the other her will probably get irritated at birds darting around and it will become a horrible mess, just like everything else in her life.

Wallowing in self-pity is an honorable pastime, and Bryce indulges a lot, complete with ice-cream and sad music. She realizes it's hormonal only after looking at the calendar she keeps mostly out of habit. She used to have terrible period pains, and now doesn't have periods at all. No pain, too; Bryce supposes it's the one good aspect of the Change. 

***

Bryce tries to help as best she can, with what little they have available in the poorer neighborhoods, and what little she remembers from her first aid classes. Mostly it's the inappropriate CPR songs the instructor had them learn that make her stifle a laugh despite herself. She has a strange reaction to stress. 

Sick people get more sick and some of them die before Bryce decides to read up on her pharmacology. She doesn't expect to become so invested, but it's three months and a call to Betty before she realizes she's the neighborhood's go-to doctor. The thought makes the anger simmering just underneath her skin more bearable. 

She wants to mark the year without a Change with a book and something possibly alcoholic, but instead ends up in a dilapidated house with a woman as beautiful as she is scared. The woman looks straight at Bryce, though, her gaze never wavering, and Bryce doesn't like her, but she respects the ability to look your fear in the eye. 

There, thinks Bryce as she follows Natasha Romanoff into a black car. There's the crazy-ass army guys.

They let her make one phone call. She gets redirected to Betty's voice mail and barely has time to say she's going to be off the grid for some time before Natasha takes the phone back.

"Sorry," Natasha says, not sounding anything but aloof. "We'll be there soon."

Bryce wants to ask 'how much longer?' just to annoy her. She wonders how long she has left to pretend to be free. 

Their journey takes all of twelve hours.

Bryce spends a lot of it breathing from her diaphragm.

***

"Here," Natasha says, startling Bryce out of her meditation. When Bryce opens her eyes, Natasha's three careful steps away with a purple blouse in her hand.

"I have clothes," Bryce says. She's a little offended, though maybe she shouldn't be. The clothes she's wearing are far from her best, or even good. In her defense, she thought she was going to get them puked on.

"You're going to meet Captain America. You should look nice," Natasha doesn't exactly smirk, but she does - something - with her face to convey her amusement. 

"I look much nicer in green," Bryce says after a beat and takes the blouse. Natasha's amusement dims.

Bryce gets left alone for a while after they arrive on a giant ship. She sings Shiver Me Timbers under her breath to hide her nervousness, but only manages to wind herself up tighter. Bryce doesn't at all understand why anyone would think bringing both of her on a ship is a good idea.

She's studied Captain America a lot, obviously, as the only successful application of the Erskine serum, but standing face to face Bryce can't help but think of the comics she owned as a child. She tries to wipe her hand discreetly on her tattered pants and sees his eyes follow her movements. 

His handshake is very firm. She might be just a little in love with him.

In contrast, Tony Stark's handshake is almost languid and over fast. The second thing he says to her is that she's pretty in green. Bryce doesn't know whether it was meant as a compliment or an insult; the way he throws it at her makes it seem more like an observation. In the laboratory Tony flirts a mile a minute, so Bryce tunes him out for a while to focus on the breathing. She's unbalanced; the calculations, the work, makes her hungry for results, impatient, happy. Dangerous. She's going to be a wreck in two days at this pace. Bryce tries another combination of equations and thinks, _Here's hoping they have some big guns on this flying coffin._

"You should visit Stark Tower", Tony says. Then: "You really have got a lid on it. What's your secret, tantric sex? A big bag of weed?"

He pokes her with a stick. She wants the Black Sabbath tee he's wearing.

"I don't get a suit of armor," Bryce offers. "I'm exposed. Like a nerve."

"I have a cluster of shrapnel trying to crawl its way into my heart," Tony says. The arc reactor glows faintly in his chest.

Bryce thinks of the old dream she used to have, the one where she came to school naked; of the first time she'd woken up somewhere in Brooklyn after a Change, without her bra or her dress on. She doesn't think Tony's comparison is entirely accurate, but can't help being grateful he acknowledges the other her. 

The little calendar tucked into the corner of her computer screen reads May 4th. She was in Kolkata three days ago; the pizza she's left on the table might still be edible. Suddenly she misses Betty. 

***

She feels cameras follow her every move in the laboratory, debates the relative merits of yanking out every one of them. Pros: a little satisfaction would go a long way right now. Cons: there's a room at the end of the corridor. Bryce can see the reinforced door every time she steps out. She knows it's for the other her. She knows, even when Loki walks past her, looking at her, smirking at her, that the room won't hold him for very long. 

When Loki escapes, Bryce has time to think she could do with being a little less right this one time, then she sees Natasha's terrified face. Then she sees red.

She doesn't remember a lot of what's happened before she woke up in the rubble. From the way her back hurts, she supposes they did have big guns on that ship of theirs. She's too tired to feel shame when she realizes she is topless, again, just takes the clothes from the old man and smiles gratefully. 

She sits outside the building for some time watching the pigeons fly. It's not at all irritating. There's no one around but the birds; maybe she did aim. Bryce feels calmer than she should be. She can feel the Hulk, though; for a minute, Bryce feels as if she's the eye of the hurricane, wrapped up in layers of the Hulk's anger. 

The Hulk is always angry.

Bryce tells herself she only wants to make sure Natasha is alright. She has a feeling Thor isn't considerably worse for wear, but Natasha is human, fragile, like Betty. That is a lie; Bryce wants to help her team. That is partly a lie; the Hulk wants to tear something apart. Well, they should be able to work out a compromise.

"I hear Loki has an army," Bryce mumbles to herself, and smiles.


End file.
